"Why doesn't he go all the way?"
"Because I would rather go alone," replied the older girl with a quite fascinating fusion of firmness and mystery.
But the manifest dignity of this response was slighted by Hilda, who merely remarked, in an unemotional yet still significant tone: "Oh, I see."
"Well, isn't it natural?"
"Isn't what natural, Lou?"
"Isn't it natural I should want to be alone when I meet Lynndal?"
"Oh, yes! I didn't just stop to think how it would be."
"Not that it would really matter about Les," the other continued, slipping quickly into her clothes. "Les is only a boy, after all."
"Oh, do you think so, Lou?"
"Why, of course. Leslie isn't more than twenty, if he's that," she concluded rather doubtfully, twisting up her dark hair and fixing it loosely in place.